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Jon Peddie Research: strong Q4’07 for graphics add-in board vendors

TIBURON, CA—March 10th 2008—When it came to the market for graphics add-in boards, 2007 was a very mixed bag. The year started poorly with a very disappointing Q1, but then bounced up in Q2 and rebounded even more strongly in Q3. So how would the market close out the year in Q4, with another move up or a return back ...

Robert Dow

TIBURON, CA—March 10th 2008—When it came to the market for graphics add-in boards, 2007 was a very mixed bag. The year started poorly with a very disappointing Q1, but then bounced up in Q2 and rebounded even more strongly in Q3. So how would the market close out the year in Q4, with another move up or a return back down?

Coming as welcome news to all with a vested interest in the market, Jon Peddie Research reports the fourth quarter was the strongest of the year. Following on the heels of the previous quarters’ upswing, Q4 saw a big jump in units, up 50.3% year-to-year and 23.0% sequentially.

Desktop AIB Market Value

Q3’06

Q4’06

Q1’07

Q2’07

Q3’07

Q4’07

Units

21.69

21.06

20.58

21.07

25.74

31.65

Growth – sequential

10.6%

-2.9%

-2.2%

2.3%

22.2%

23.0%

Growth – year-to-year

7.7%

-5.7%

-7.4%

6.9%

18.7%

50.3%

Market value ($M)

$4,975.92

$4,497.25

$3,543.75

$5,758.26

$6,617.23

$6,577.87

Growth – sequential

-4.4%

-9.6%

-21.2%

62.5%

14.9%

-0.6%

Growth – year-to-year

-13.9%

-15.1%

-39.8%

10.6%

33.0%

46.3%

Table 1 AIB market value history, by quarter

Revenue on the surface appeared very strong, up 46.3% year-to-year. But when considering that ASPs dropped 19% from Q3, vendors may have been a bit disappointed the quarter didn’t see bigger spending. JPR attributed the ASP drop both to model transitions and product turnover at market leader Nvidia, as well as consumers’ holiday shopping, which tends to focus more dollars on lower-priced products.

Among vendors, Nvidia increased its lead in market share in Q4, now responsible for 71% of all units shipped, up from 64% the previous quarter.